Trump says ‘talking is not the answer’ with North Korea after Pentagon’s latest missile-defense test – Washington Post

North Korean state television released images of a ballistic missile that flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Aug. 29. (Reuters)

President Trump questioned Wednesday why the United States should keep open the possibility of talks with North Korea, hours after the U.S. military conducted a new missile-defense test off the coast of Hawaii that it said was successful.

The test came after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over northern Japan early Tuesday and warned that it was the first step in having a “Pacific operation.” Late in the day in Hawaii, the Navy and the Missile Defense Agency combined to carry out what they termed a “complex missile defense flight test,” intercepting a mock medium-range ballistic missile using guided missiles launched from the destroyer USS John Paul Jones.

The military used what it calls “Standard Missile-6″ weapons to take out the ballistic missile target, tracking it on radar aboard the ship first. Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said in a statement afterward that it was working with the Navy “to develop this important new capability,” and considered the test a key milestone in building the Navy’s Aegis missile-defense capability.

“We will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves,” Greaves said.

President Trump warned on Aug. 29 that “all options are on the table” as the United States considers its response to North Korea’s firing of a ballistic missile over northern Japan’s Hokkaido Island. (Reuters)

Trump accused North Korea of taking “extortion money” from the United States for the past 25 years in a tweet several hours later, adding that “Talking is not the answer!” The president posted the message as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was preparing to meet Wednesday morning with Song Young-moo, South Korea’s defense minister.

The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!

Mattis, asked Wednesday morning at the Pentagon whether there are no diplomatic solutions when it comes to North Korea, indicated that there still are.

“No, we’re never out of diplomatic solutions,” he said. “We continue to work together, and the minister and I share a responsibility to provide for the protection of our nations, our populations and our interests, which is what we are here to discuss today.”

The test, carried out off the coast of Hawaii, marks the second time that the military has successfully intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target, military officials said. The first one occurred in December.

Navy Adm. Harry Harris, chief of Pacific Command, has suggested that the Pentagon should consider adding more ballistic missile interceptors in Hawaii, citing the threat North Korea poses. There are “sufficient” ballistic missile interceptors protecting the United States at Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, he said, but more equipment in Hawaii could be helpful.

“I believe that our ballistic missile architecture is sufficient to protect Hawaii today, but it can be overwhelmed,” Harris said in April during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. If the United States faced a wave of incoming ballistic missiles, he added, “someone would have to make a decision on which one to take out or not. So that’s a difficult decision.”

A day after North Korea launched a missile over Japan, Tokyo Bureau Chief Anna Fifield answers one of the questions she gets most often about North Korea: “Are we going to war?” (Anna Fifield/The Washington Post)